Aid for refugees

£1,905
of £1,000 goal

Please help us get aid to refugees that desperately need it across Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have entered Europe in recent months. Europe still has not come up with any solution of how to help them all. Men, women and children, who only wanted to be safe from war so they can rebuild their lives, are now in desperate humanitarian need. Children are freezing, their feet rotting as they stand in the rain. And that's if they make it safely across the Mediterranean.

We have to help.

I'm Lindsey and I'm just part of a group of people based around Newbury, West Berkshire who were desperately wondering what we could do to help the refugee crisis, who set up a little Facebook page - West Berks Action for Refugees - to gather donations and pass on info and were then overwhelmed by the incredible response from local people.

What we thought would be a van load to Calais and a box or two to Greece has turned into a major effort supplying and supporting convoys of lorries, as well as potentially shipping pallets of desperately needed items directly to crisis points. But shipping and driving aid across Europe costs money. No one is being paid, we're all volunteers, any money raised will be used to best channel the goodwill of our local community into aid for the most needy.

Give whatever you feel you can to help with this. Every £1 helps us,

We have formed a steering group to set up a small charity - West Berks Action for Refugees - to coordinate and facilitate local efforts to help, send local donations to where they are needed most and support resettlement of refugees in West Berkshire. West Berks Action for Refugees will use any money donated here to fund getting aid from West Berkshire to where it is needed. We are working with groups of volunteers and small aid organisations, and will always try to find the most cost effective way to make the most difference.

Thank you everyone for your support over the last 6 months. It's been just over 6 months since the well publicised death of little Alan Al-Kurdi spurred so many of us to do more to help with the refugee crisis.

Sadly, things have not got any better for those fleeing conflict and oppression and children like Alan continue to die trying to reach safety.

Our work continues, both at home and on the continent.

We're doing more and more to support refugees and those seeking asylum in the UK. Donations, buying necessities and setting up a local refugee befriending service.

And in response to an increased need in Calais and Dunkirk - following the destruction of a large part of the Calais Jungle camp (which made hundreds of refugees including unaccompanied migrants utterly homeless) and the relocation of the Dunkirk camp (see attached photo!) - we’re going to be doing a big run to Calais next month. Hope & Aid Direct have offered the use of one of their 7.5tonne lorries, which means we can get a lot more out far more effectively than in cars.

As always, more funds & more support means we can do more, send more, help more. So if you can share this funder, Like our Facebook page (facebook.com/WestBerksRefugees) and share posts or follow us on Twitter (@wbrefugees), THANK YOU!

For some time now, we've been in contact with Hope and Aid Direct, in the hope that they would be able to take large volumes of aid out to refugee crisis hotspots in SE Europe.

Hope and Aid Direct is a UK charity that has been taking aid directly to the Balkans and Syria for years, and has experience of collecting & distributing aid, working with the UN and other NGOs . Their experience will be invaluable.http://www.hopeandaiddirect.org.uk

Hope and Aid Direct co-founder and Head of operations, Charles Storer MBE, is this week visiting Macedonia and Lesvos. The plan is to take a convoy of aid out in late December or early January and we in West Berkshire will be contributing to this.

We hope to contribute to the costs of getting the aid out to where it is needed, so please keep sharing this funder and donate if you can.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. The donations have made a real difference.

After days of worsening horrific news from the Greek islands, with wet weather making a bad situation hellish, there have been some glimmers of hope. The UNHCR has stepped in to create some order in the hellhole of the Moria camp on Lesvos. The UNHCR has also intervened to prevent unaccompanied refugee children being locked up in a medieval gaol on Kos. And the Greek government has announced it is hugely expanding reception facilities and accommodation for refugees.

But help is still desperately needed, in Greece and across Europe. Volunteers and NGOs on the Greek islands are appealing for urgent aid, of the sort we have already been donated, such as warm children's raincoats.

We're working on a plan to get the support of local businesses to get large amounts of aid out to the Greek islands asap (as well as plans to get more out across Europe in December/January), but the donations already received have meant we are arranging a shipment asap whatever.

Thank you for your support and please keep sharing the funding campaign and our updates, and donate what you can, whether it is money or your time.

A refugee kisses his baby after landing on Lesvos. Thousands of refugees have landed there in the last week alone